Recognition

[john78]

I didn’t know exactly where to post this,

I was just thinking about how we constantly hear of scandals in the Church, bad/corrupt Priests, Bishops, etc, or Nuns / Sisters with radical views…

But how often do we post about the good Homilies we hear, the Priests, Nuns,Sisters, Brothers, Bishops, etc ?

pnj.com/article/20120606/NEWS01/306060030/New-bishop-installed-lead-Pensacola-Tallahassee-diocese

The link is from a very leftist news paper in my town, so if you feel like you are reading an article written by an 8th grader, you are not alone. I can only imagine how some had to cringe this morning seeing this on the front page of the local paper as well.

Everyone foams at the mouth over the latest corruption in the Church but most scoff at times the local paper prints articles such as this.

anyhow I digress

Bishop John Ricard went through a lot in his service, what took him out of service a few years back was a stroke, I dont know a lot about this Bishop but I do remember that even during his failing health he managed to say a Christmas Mass before he retired shortly after, and the Mass was the most beautiful one I had seen at the Cathedral thus far.

We also have a terrific Monsignor in our town and three other really excellent priests in my town that I have learned from over the years all of these men are very smart and why they do not write a few books i dont know.

I cant say I have had the honor to meet any outstanding Nuns or Sisters, I hope in time I do as growing up in grade school with them all i remember from them is the ear pulling and occasional smack upside the head, which now a days would have the lot of em thrown in the clink, if they had ever done anything kind towards me it is over taken by the by bad memories which i find sad… But I would like to think they made me stronger in some shape or form.

So perhaps there are some on here who can relate some info on Nuns or Sisters they personally know and admire, as it would be nice to see a few get mentioned.

I think we all know there are excellent people in these vocations i kinda wish we as lay people took the time to recognize them more often in public. And I am just glad someone on more than one occasion at my local paper has taken the time to Print in public good things about the Catholic Church.

And no these people do not seek recognition, neither does our military yet we still have a national holiday set aside for them and parades.

 

[mab23]

Amen - great topic OP

 

[AlanFromWichita]

I cant say I have had the honor to meet any outstanding Nuns or Sisters, I hope in time I do as growing up in grade school with them all i remember from them is the ear pulling and occasional smack upside the head, which now a days would have the lot of em thrown in the clink, if they had ever done anything kind towards me it is over taken by the by bad memories which i find sad… But I would like to think they made me stronger in some shape or form.

So perhaps there are some on here who can relate some info on Nuns or Sisters they personally know and admire, as it would be nice to see a few get mentioned.

Yes, I got the ear pulling and everything. I remember being “removed” from room 106 by my ear, and “tossed” into room 108 so I could sit and be frightened in the little reading chairs in front of their room wondering what the hell I did this time because if I ask what I did they get even madder.

But there were standouts. Sister Geraldine Marie. Fifth grade. She was the only grade school teacher from whom I actually learned math (the rest I learned before we ever covered in class – sometimes years ahead). Every day she would have us line up in two lines and have a face-off, loser-sits-down contest for doing arithmetic problems she’d fire off. Addition, fractions, percentages, a lot of that. It’s because of her I can say 1/7 = 14 1/7% without even a half second of thought. Or that 5/8 is 62 1/2 percent. Almost every day it came down to John Shap against me. Often he’d answer a split second faster, but he’d spew out the answer blublublub and she couldn’t give the point to him. I always had the right answer, so if I was faster or he got ruled out, I’d win that day.

Turns out, she actually had a master’s degree in math.

Sister Geraldine also chose song leaders for each day. The designated person for that day would stand at the front and lead the class in a song. Actually I have one bad memory of that, but overall it was wonderful. The bad memory was, that as an organist I had music to the chant version of the Our Father we were about to start using in the parish, and I tried to rehearse it with the class. But Sister thought it was too boring, and apparently missed the fact that in two weeks it would be mandatory for us all to sing it, so she said, “I don’t know what this is. Who knows the Our Father?” Popular person Bill Davis stood up and said, “I do,” and led us in a hand-clapping “up beat” version that the guitar Mass people sang. Oh well.

Oh yeah, then there was Sister Ann, 8th grade. She had a temper, but we knew she loved us and wanted us to love her and each other. She actually took us to the play Godspell when it was playing at a Chicago playhouse, as a field trip. For a few weeks before we went, we would listen to the record and sing along, so we learned the words of all the songs well before the day of the trip. If we had not done that, the play would have made very little sense. She didn’t even stop us from getting in the line during intermission; it was right after the song “You are the Light of the World” which contains the words “let’s have some wine!” We filed up there with the rest of the audience as the actors gave out small paper cups of wine. And guess what, nobody sued anybody over it!

A few months ago I met a nun that works at St. Joseph hospital, who was taking care of my mother. She had the patience of a saint, a wonderful smile at all times except when it just wasn’t appropriate. My mother was in a condition requiring a great deal of care, and sometimes as soon as they’d walk out of the room she’d do something that Sister would have to come back for. Actually all the hospital staff was pretty good, but Sister was far and away the most impressive to me.

Alan